Here is some helpful advice for people attempting to use COM with Microsoft MapPoint 2006 or 2009 with PHP.

If you are using apache, it MUST be running under the same credentials as a desktop user that has already installed/run mappoint or modifiy the service and select the "Allow Service to Interact with Desktop" option. Otherwise, it won't work due to the EULA popup having to be accepted. Mappoint 2004 works just fine, this only applies to 2006 and 2009.

For troubleshooting, the error that appears in the System event viewer is:The server {31851F82-AFE6-11D2-A3C9-00C04F72F340} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The error generated by PHP, if you happen to get lucky and let the COM() function timeout by cranking up set_time_limit() timeout is:<?php